170 Bits a fid Bitting. 



the upper part of the bit be, as it so frequently is, a 

 quarter of an inch too long, then the curb mounts up 

 out of the chin-groove and causes so much pain that the 

 horse, to escape it, bores into the rider's hand. He will 

 then, perhaps, try a longer curb or a shorter one ; the 

 bit will either fall through or be stiff, and he concludes 

 that he must have a sharper one, and has a recourse to 

 some instrument of torture ; and so it goes on from bad 

 to worse, till he gets rid of the poor, ill-used animal.* 



The best-fitting bit, even when placed in the proper 

 place, will not work well unless the curb be properly 

 constructed and exactly of the length required. Taking 

 all in all, a double chain worked quite flat, without 

 prominent edges, and which, when twisted zip to its 

 full extent, does not overtzvist^ is the best kind of curb. 

 Leather would be, in some respects, better than a chain ; 

 it is, however, not only perishable, but also subject to 

 stretch or contract when exposed to moisture ; and after 

 having been once or twice thoroughly soaked, becoming 

 hard and inflexible, it is more likely to injure the horse's 

 chin than a well-made chain. 



It is very clear that the narrower the chain is made 

 the more likely is it to cause pain, which is just what 

 we want to avoid, and we should, therefore, endeavor 

 to make it as broad as possible. The vulgar notion of a 

 sharp curb is, as the reader perceives, a monstrous ab- 

 surdity. But there is a limit to this : if it be so broad 



* This is no imaginary case : the author once saw a nice little thor- 

 ough-bred horse at Ostend, and a few months later at Dublin, as second 

 charger of a light cavalry officer of the garrison. It was set down as 

 an incurable bolter, and, passing through the hands of the riding-mas- 

 ter, adjutant and several officers, was finally sold, as dangerous to ride, 

 for ;^ 1 5 at a fifth-rate auction-mart. The purchaser, a ladies' doctor, 

 brought it to the author, who, after curing its dreadfully lacerated 

 mouth and jaws, bitted it properly with a very light bit, which enabled 

 the dov-tor to ride it within a week at a review of the regiment in ques- 

 tion, and for several years afterward, without ever bolting or being 

 troublesome : never was there a better-tempered creature. 



